ASUS Prices Its 128GB AI Laptop at $7,000
The ProArt P16 runs large language models locally, but the configuration tested costs far more than mainstream gaming machines.
By Chioma Kuznetsov ·
ASUS's first laptop built around NVIDIA's RTX Spark chip, the ProArt P16, went on sale with a starting price of $2,800. The configuration with 128GB of RAM that was reviewed costs $7,000. That memory-heavy build can run AI models without sending data to the cloud, which is the main reason the machine exists.
RTX Spark combines a 20-core Arm CPU, a Blackwell GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory on a single chip. The arrangement resembles Apple's M-series designs. Microsoft and NVIDIA have promoted the platform as a rethinking of the personal computer. The review published on October 23, 2026 describes a narrower purpose: running local AI models for people who need that capability.
The machine weighs 3.9 pounds and carries a 16-inch OLED display rated at 1,600 nits. The chassis is aluminum. Ports include three USB-C connections, one USB Type A, an HDMI port, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader. There is no Ethernet port. Battery life in the PCMark 10 Applications test reached ten hours and 51 minutes, below the 15-plus hours many premium laptops record.
In testing, the laptop ran OpenClaw and the Qwen3.8 27B model, which alone uses 42GB of RAM, with memory to spare. It also handled Control: Resonant and Cyberpunk 2077 at high settings. NVIDIA has said the graphics hardware performs roughly like the RTX 5070 mobile GPU while drawing less power. The review measured 70 fps in Control: Resonant at 1440p with ultra settings, medium ray tracing and 4x frame generation, rising to 120 fps when settings were lowered.
Benchmark results split along task lines. In PCMark 10 Applications, the P16 scored about 3,000 points below ASUS's A16 with a Snapdragon X2 Elite chip, and it trailed slightly in Geekbench 6 single-threaded CPU testing. Graphics and AI tests favored the machine: it beat a MacBook Pro with an M5 Max by 4,700 points in Geekbench 6 GPU, scored 3,895 against 3,267 in Procyon's AI Computer Vision 2 test, and reached 1,519 in Procyon's AI Image Generation, 600 points above Apple's result.
Game compatibility remains uneven. Most titles run through Microsoft's Prism emulator for the Arm CPU, which cuts performance and can cause problems. Native Arm64 builds exist for Fortnite, DOTA 2 and Marvel Rivals. NVIDIA says it is working with anti-cheat companies, but some multiplayer games may still fail. Adobe has brought its best-known software to the platform; support from other multimedia apps is less certain.
The review pointed to an alternative for gamers: an ASUS Zephyrus G16 with an RTX 5070 and a 240Hz OLED screen, listed at $2,124 at Best Buy, which delivers better gaming performance and full compatibility. The reviewer said AI professionals are the clear buyers who can justify the cost, and said they would wait at least a year before recommending RTX Spark to general users or gamers.
The black finish shows fingerprints. Performance did not change when the laptop ran on battery power.
